Surgical drapes having an upper side with absorbent regions, such as Klinidrape® manufactured by the applicant, are known. Such a drape has often a patch of highly absorbent material in a relatively small area around the surgical site, a zone of absorbent material with a relatively high absorbent capacity surrounding said patch and reaching to an end zone with a lower absorbent capacity running along one edge or the edges of the drape. The idea behind this construction is to absorb blood and other fluids as early as possible in order to prevent spreading thereof. Drapability and strength are two important factors when designing surgical drapes and very often the construction of a drape involves a compromise between these two factors. With modern synthetic materials it is however possible to obtain highly tactile materials having a sufficient strength so that the demands on these two factors can be fulfilled without compromise. As a matter of fact it has been found that the use of highly tactile materials can make the handling of the drapes difficult, especially during the sterile draping of a patient. When packaging a drape it is folded in a certain way facilitating a sterile application of the drape on a patient. It has been found that tactile drapes have a tendency to unfold and fall apart when taken out of its package, thereby making a sterile application thereof difficult or impossible. Such drapes are also difficult to handle during the draping procedure and therefore make the draping procedure more difficult and time consuming.
With surgical drapes or towels of the type described above there is also a risk that the gown of a surgeon or another person, when leaning on the operation table and thereby on the drape, would be wetted to a strike-through by blood or other fluid absorbed in the drape.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a surgical drape which can absorb blood and other fluids emanating from the surgical site during a surgical intervention having an improved fluid flow. A second objective is to take advantage of the extreme good drapability of highly tactile drape materials without occurrence of the above mentioned handling problems.